It’s Stop Food Waste Day Today … and Every Day at Bon Appétit!
- by bonappetit

University of Portland General Manager Kirk Mustain’s Chickpea Panisse with Wilted Beet Greens, Aquafaba, and Roasted Garlic
- Here at Bon Appétit, we hate food waste with a passion. Food waste is one of the biggest contributors to climate change. Wasting food means you’re also wasting all the energy it took to grow, harvest, transport, and cook it. In addition, food decomposing in landfills releases methane, the greenhouse gas that is 20 to 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. It also pains us to see perfectly good food end up in the compost bin when it could be used to feed people in need.We’ve been fighting food waste for years and our chefs have gotten pretty adept at creatively using everything in their kitchens. In honor of Stop Food Waste Day today (April 28), Compass Group asked chefs around the world to submit creative food-waste-fighting recipes for the Stop Food Waste Day Recipe Contest. Our Bon Appétit chefs stole the show with four winning recipes:
- Beef Birria Tacos with Consomme, Rice, and Beans by the Bon Appétit at Blizzard team including General Manager Justin Hebblethwaite, Cook Jose “Reynoso“ De Jesus, Sous Chef Jon Bacon, and Sous Chef Manny Avila
- Curried Cauliflower Four Ways by Bon Appétit at Columbia Sportswear Company Executive Chef Joseph Dougherty
- Whole Lemon Meringue Bars with Cracker Crumb Crust by Bon Appétit at Google Pastry Chef Jenn Bullard
- Zero Waste Carrot Ice Cream Duo by Bon Appétit at Google Teaching Kitchen Chefs Dede Sampson and Christy Wolf
In addition, at Bon Appétit we decided to run our own internal recipe challenge and selected our top three winning recipes that best embody food-waste-fighting techniques in delicious-sounding dishes:
- Chickpea Panisse with Wilted Beet Greens, Aquafaba, and Roasted Garlic by Bon Appétit at University of Portland General Manager Kirk Mustain
- Baked Bagna Cauda with Brassicas by Bon Appétit at Google Chef de Cuisine Morgan Clements
- (Double winner!) Whole Lemon Meringue Bars by Bon Appétit at Google Pastry Chef Jenn Bullard.
Our creative chefs have proven it’s possible to make something totally delicious out of what would otherwise be wasted! We hope these dishes and recipes inspire you to fight waste in your own kitchen as well. And if you have kids at home, Healthy Kids in the Bon Appétit Kitchen put together this fun food-waste-fighting activity you can do with young children (or by yourself, we won’t tell):